WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

One of my favorite CD’s is Eine kleine Nachtmusik by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was born in 1756 and died in 1791. Whenever I think of Mozart I also think of Larry Green, a young African American student who was in my English 101 class back in 1985. He did not appear to be a genius but he had enormous talent. I told him this after I handed back one of his essays and I urged him to develop that talent.

After class a few days later he came to my desk to tell me he had changed his major from engineering to journalism. We became good friends. Larry had been reading, writing, playing and composing music for the past ten years. It was hard not to notice he was wearing a T-shirt with the name AMADEUS written across the front.

He told me his mother was pleased that he was writing and trying to get published. I learned Larry had two brothers who drove his mother to distraction with hard rock music. When Larry came to the breakfast table the first day of class, wearing that Amadeus T-shirt, his mother asked:

"Is that AMADEUS some kind of rock band?" she asked.

"No, Ma, that's Mozart. Amadeus is his middle name."

"Well, I don't know who Mozart is but I just don't want music in this house like Led Zeppelin."

"No, Ma, Mozart's music is different." For the next few days Larry played some selections from Eine kleine NachtMusik. His mother loved it.

A few mornings later as Larry was going to school, she handed Larry a twenty dollar bill and said, "Go out an’ buy some more of that Mozart."

Two hundred years from now, will young kids be wearing Led Zeppelin T-shirts? Will Amadeus T-shirts be still be popular? Perhaps. And maybe a late comer T-shirt with the name “Larry Green” blazoned across the front will be popular too.

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